The 1920's...The Migrants Arrive and Cast Their Ballots

1974

American, 1917 - 2000

In the 1970s, Jacob Lawrence turned to printmaking and revisited many of his earlier themes, including his highly successful 1941 series The Migration of the Negro (the artist’s original title). The series chronicled the cultural, social, and political realities of one of the largest population shifts in U.S. history: the mass migration, beginning in 1910, of African Americans from the rural south to the urban north to escape racial violence and seek opportunity. In this later installment, Black people head to the polls, exercising their right to vote. “To me, migration means movement,” Lawrence said, “There was conflict and struggle. But out of the struggle came a kind of power and even beauty. ‘And the migrants kept coming’ is a refrain of triumph over adversity.”

Ink on paper

32 x 24 5/16 in. (81.28 x 61.76 cm)

Gift of the Lorillard Co., N.Y.

75.70

Provenance: Lorillard Co., New York, New York; gift to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1974

Photo: Scott Leen

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistoryWalla Walla, Washington, Olin Art Gallery, Whitman College, Contemporary Prints, March - April 1976.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence, February 6 - May 4, 2003 (Organized by The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.).

Eugene, Oregon, University of Oregon, Inaugural Installation of the Jordan Mina Schnitzer American and Regional Art Gallery, January 21, 2005 - January 21, 2007.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Forget Me Not: Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence and Jacob Lawrence, May 5 - September 9, 2007.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Freeing the Figure, December 2, 2009 - July 3, 2011.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Jacob Lawrence: American Storyteller, June 28, 2024 - January 5, 2025.

Published ReferencesNesbett, Peter T. Jacob Lawrence: The Complete Prints (1963-2000): A Catalogue Raisonne. Seattle: Francine Seders Gallery Ltd. in association with University of Washington Press (Seattle and London), 2001, p. 30, no. L74-3.

Nesbett, Peter T. and Hills, Patricia. Jacob Lawrence: Thirty Years of Prints (1963-1993): A Catalogue Raisonne. Seattle: Francine Seders Gallery Ltd. in association with University of Washington Press (Seattle and London), 1994, p. 30, no. 74-3.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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The 1920's...The Migrants Arrive and Cast Their Ballots

The 1920's...The Migrants Arrive and Cast Their Ballots

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Resources